Saturday September 25, 2010.

Team Quest Ultimate Plus members and ORT met up for a run down the Upper Clackamas river outside of Portland, OR. After a week of questionable weather, the skies cleared and we had awesome conditions on the water- though water levels were getting down pretty low in late September! A few “races”, some tight R2 lines by Matt and Nick, and many MMA-training discussions were had over the 10mi stretch. Good times all around- Big thanks to Rowdy and Dr.Frankenstein for help putting the trip on.

View a video of the day’s events below

The penultimate WWCS race will take place this Saturday on the White Salmon River outside of Hood River, OR! There is still room (as of this morning) for catarafts, IKs, and rafts classes. Get a crew together and come on out- R2, R3, R6- whatever. Prizes from Sotar and River Hardware.

If you’d like to volunteer with the support crew, contact Zach Collier (zach@nwrafting.com) at NW Rafting.

Visit the official website here for race details. See you on the river!

Everything changes and ends.

This is yet another tale of beginning, ending, and the everlasting pursuit of connectedness.  Traveling alone, physically, my trip began with a funeral, a wedding, and a peaceful day by a mountain lake with my uncle and spiritual guide.

I left those that I knew and traveled across the Sierras to begin my nomadic journey.  However, river people are never alone in a river community.  Upon reaching the Tuollumne drainage  I quickly befriended Isaiah from ARTA and Rob from Whitewater Voyages who invited me into his home for the evening where we hung out with the guides and watched some crazy dudes from Oregon running big waterfalls in a raft:)

Granite.

Hard, big, steep, relentless.

I left the park to kayak the Upper Merced at a technical level, solo boating has some disadvantages-

Headin back to the Tuolomne I discovered the boat house for Sierra Mac.

http://www.sierramac.com/

Only two companies currently run the Cherry Creek section of the Tuolomne, 16 class V rapids in 9 miles.

Granite.

It was here that I met Sierra Mac’s head guide Adam Crom, a quiet, confident, strong man who maintains a standard of vigilance by training in the martial arts when not guiding what is likely the toughest section of whitewater ran commercially in the world.

“The river is fierce. Today we must also be fierce. There will be times when you are tired but you must continue to fight, you will need to reach down inside yourself and find whatever it takes to succeed”. – Adam Crom

My hope is that someday I can someday also be a gracious host to everyone I met while paddling the Tuolomne and Merced. Thanks again Marty for allowing me to be a part of the Sierra Mac experience, your guides will always have a place to stay and boats to use in Oregon.

I dropped down into the Cadillac desert and headed north for the Trinity. After paddling the Pigeon Point section Paul Gamache and myself made plans to R2 Burnt Ranch Gorge, yet another California Classic that has eluded me for too long.

I was able to find that strength from within that Adam was referring to. The Nomad’s last journey (sold the boat this morning) was a comprehensive success. Not only was I blessed with amazing whitewater but the rediscovery of our human spirit occurred by making new friends and reconnecting with old ones. The time is now, happiness is right here.

ORT recently took some off-season fun runs down Breitenbush, the upper North Santiam, and Opal Creek in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. With our GoPro filming and editing skills on the rise, more videos are on the way!

I have driven past the Upper East Fork of the Hood at least a hundred times. On each occassion my first thought was always, “It would be fun to take a raft down that”.  Well darn tootin it sure was!  While many naysayers said it was too low (3.8 feet at Tucker) we headed out anyway and enjoyed a technical class IV run in the sunshine.  We put in just below Sherwood Campground and took out just above the quaint little orchard “town” of Mt. Hood.  Cool little pub there with happy hour every day by the way.  I didn’t partake as my hands were full with the 12 mile bike shuttle back up what was more fun coming down.

 

 

 

Cruisin the last 4 miles

Big ups to Aire for building the Puma, the best raft creeker in the biz, and to Jacob for essentially running solo in a pinny-bangy cascade of goodness.

The Pan American Championships are being held in Foz do Aguassu, Brazil August 20 – 23, 2010! Check out the event website here. The race is on the Itaipu Canal, an awesome WW park. If your organization/team is interested in representing the USRA and USA in these games, please contact the USRA here or the Pan American Championship event organizers.

Do not fail

To learn from

The pure voice of an

Ever-flowing mountain stream

Splashing over the rocks.        - Ueshiba

Our day on the Little North Santiam at 1050 cfs began with the short hike in. A van with racks was unable to provide assistance for “liability reasons” and it would “detract from the wilderness experience”…:)

She waved and encouraged us to have a nice day. We did. Thanks van lady.

A Big Ugly raft run down Big Ugly

Drops of water fall from the sky as if to acknowledge all that is good.

Rivers allow us to escape from certain realities while enabling the replenishment of goodness within. This became most evident at the Taco Bell in Woodburn when we walked into an episode of COPS. Just 30 feet from our rig, 7 law enforcement vehicles had clustered upon a vehicle with their guns drawn and laser sights honed in. No pictures of this episode. We only wished to keep evidence of positive things on this day. Of course a debriefing was held-